EnkerEXE
by Enker
Summary: A mysterious Navi arrives from the net one night and is found badly injured on a young girl's PET. Where does he come from? What is his function? Only time will tell.
1. Chapter: 1

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been running an internet site for a while now entitled Enker's Tale. A dojin that outlines the character of Enker in the 21XX universe. For those of you who don't already know him, Enker is a Classic Megaman character who appeared in several games before vanishing. This Fanfic is set in the Battle Network series, and deals with the adventures of Enker.EXE and his NetOp Switch. For the time being it's a one-off, a pilot for a possible series if people think its any good. If so, comment or e-mail me and I'll wirte more.  
_

ENKER.EXE – By Ben Warren.   
-

Switch sat back in her chair and crossed out the answers to her maths question. This really wasn't her best subject, she'd spent the better part of an hour on this one question, and she just knew that everyone else was almost finished with their school work. Nibbling on the end of her pen, she carefully worked her way through the process of multiplication, and then subtracted the required amount. With delicate handwriting she wrote down her answer and proceeded onto the second question.

This would be a lot easier of they were allowed to use their PETs to work out the answers, but the teacher had decided that today they were going to rely on their own brainpower. This meant that Switch's Personal Terminal was tucked neatly in her bag, placed beneath the table.

Two gruelling hours later the bell rang for the end of school. People jumped up, handing their answer sheets back to the teacher before manically throwing their stationary into open bags and running out. Chatter filled the room as people filed out, and laughter could be heard. Everyone was heading to the local arcade she knew, off to Net Battle their Navis and to generally have a good time. A couple of her friends asked her if she wanted to join them for a meal down at the local take-out stand, but she smiled and excused herself. She had other plans.

Slower than the rest, Switch carefully packed her work away and headed for the door. She wouldn't be going to the arcade, there was no point. Her PET did not contain a custom Navi, and thought her off-the-shelf one was capable of being used in a Net Battle, the chance of it winning was next to nothing. The simplistic thing didn't have a shape or sex, didn't even have a voice. Occasionally she'd get teased by the older girls in class about it, but there was nothing she could do about it. Her parents had told her that she would receive one if she excelled in her grades this year, and her mother was fond of reminding her that this deal included getting a good grade in her Math classes.

She was a small girl for her age, with long blond hair tied back into two bunches and large green eyes. They didn't live too far from the school, and the walk home was uneventful. Slipping quietly into her house she registered that her mother was still out at work, and a note on the fridge confirmed that Dad had cooked her dinner and that it was waiting inside. Sighing she removed the plate full of mashed potato and what looked like meat, and sat down at the dining room table, her homework in front of her. She HAD to get this finished if there was ever going to be a chance of her getting a custom Navi of her own. Knife and fork in hand, she slowly began to eat whilst sh worked on the next problem on the list.

-

He had to keep moving.

Pain wracked his body, the attack had burned him badly, leaving him panting for breath, but he knew that if he stopped that would be it for him, he would be deleted.

Diving down through the net, tracked by an unseen enemy, he was forced to keep running. He had already changed data-streams several times in the hope of throwing off whoever was hunting him, but it wasn't working. Nothing he did was working. Pretty soon he would be out of tricks, and then he would have to turn and fight.

Ahead of him, the world exploded into a shocking burst of colour, throwing his hands up in front of his face he let out a scream of pain. Shrapnel and heat wracked his body, one arm dropping uselessly to one side. They'd set a trap for him, and like a blind fool he had walked right into it. Disorientated and confused from the explosion, he stumbled back.

In an act of desperation, he tapped into the closest server. Forcing an entry into the new system and disappearing from the net in a flash. Within this new realm things were soft and cool, it was silent and safe.

Unable to stay awake any more, he passed into unconsciousness.

-

Switch awoke to the sound of her PET bleeping. The strange buzzing noises sounded like a system reboot, but she couldn't imagine why that would be happening. Sitting up she realised that she had gone to sleep in front of her homework, the washing up from dinner still in the sink and her face lent against the dinner table. Reaching out she picked up her pet, untapping it from the house server and bringing the screen close enough to her face to see it properly.

There was no sign of her Navi, the little grey figure had vanished from the confines of her PET, but in its stead there appeared to be a strange figure, clad in gold and blue. Though upon closer inspection she realised that this new Navi was close to deletion. His left arm was fazing in and out of existence, and several patches of his armour had been blasted away. Switch gave a little gasp and ran a system analysis, this Navi had arrived from the net, but it didn't appear to have any owner data.

Carefully she began to run a restoration program. A small icon and taskbar appeared in the bottom right of the screen and began to tick down. Beside it another icon – this one requesting that a dummy-chip be inserted into the download slot. Carefully Switch reached out and found one, her mother kept a stack beside the phone in case work wanted her to save anything on the fly. Slotting it into the PET she narrowed her eyes and watched as the chip was uploaded with foreign data, and then ejected. Now it bore an image on the back, and bore the text 'battle chip – Mirror Buster.'

"Never heard of that one," she mused and slipped it into her pocket. Turning her attention back to the strange Navi, who was already looking better. Several patches of his armour were finished and the main fixing seemed to be centred around the fazing arm now. "Seven hours." She murmured to herself, and she reached out for her homework books and carefully stacked them back into her schoolbag. It was going to be a good long time before this Navi was going to be able to answer any questions about where he had come from, maybe she should do the washing up and go to bed. Any questions she had could wait until the morning. Besides, it was the weekend.

-

He blinked and woke up. Looking around he recognized his surroundings, but nothing else. Backtracking through his memory he was completely unable to recall where it was he had come from, or what he had been doing before the chase.

His whole memory before last night had been erased.

"You're feeling better?" the voice made him jump, it sounded like it was coming from all around him. A sweet voice, perhaps that of a little girl. A small window appeared in front of him, and he could see her peeking in on him. "You took a lot of damage last night, but I managed to run an complete regeneration of your body. You should be alright now." Her voice was calm, reassuring. She actually appeared to be concerned about him.

"I'm alright . . . I . . . thankyou. Where am I?" He asked, and stood up.

"Your data says that you came in from the net at about midnight last night." She pointed to another small video-file that popped open in a window and played out. It showed him arriving and passing out, but there were no clues there as to who he was or where he came from.

"I can't remember anything." He admitted honestly. "I think my data has been corrupted somehow."

Switch blinked and looked at him. "Your profile says that your name is Enker."

Enker, it sounded right. He nodded once. "Anything else?"

"Nope, sorry but the details are blank. Judging from your statistics though I'd say you're a combat-type Navi. Its odd, but your intelligence rating is also surprisingly high. I've got no idea what you're designed for with a spread like that."

Enker straightened up a little. He had a name now at least, this was a start.

-

"I've got a question." The Navi looked up at her from the screen of her PET, and Switch – sitting on her bed upstairs – tilted her head to one side.

"What?" she asked.

The Navi looked embarrassed, a strange sight for someone who had only ever used a standard designed one in the past – their facial expression was strictly limited and showed their lack of AI programming. After a moment he seemed to make up his mind about something and asked.

"I don't have any clue as to where to start looking for answers, is there anything else you know about me?"

Switch rummaged through her pockets and found the Mirror Buster chip, holding it up so is that he could see it from the screen. "Just this chip. The info for it was downloaded about the same time that you arrived." She blushed a little and looked at the screen. "If you want to stay a little while, just until you remember where it is you came from, it's fine by me. I've never had a Custom Navi before." She started putting things into her schoolbag, pausing with one hand on the PET, was it alright for her to take Enker with her? After all he really wasn't her Navi, but she'd need the PET for class. She explained the situation to him.

Enker blinked, surprised at the unexpected act of kindness. "Take me with you, I need time to think anyway."

Switch checked her watch against the hall clock, and cursed. She was late for school already and the teacher was going to kill her. Her coursework was due in today. Rushing out of the front door, she tucked Enker and her PET into the back of her bag and ran for it.

-

She made it in plenty of time, but was breathing heavily by the time she sat herself down at her desk at school. The other kids laughed at the state of her, her hair all matted and unkempt, and she did her best to ignore them. Pulling out her books and doing the best she could to straighten herself out, she could hear Evet Johnson, the girl in the seat behind her sniggering and making jokes behind her back.

All throughout class the insults kept coming, and from start to finish she tried her best to ignore them with little success. Cruel words about her looks, parents and lack of money where thrown around, mixed in with nastier tidbits that just weren't true.

Deep within the recesses of her bag, Enker sat listening, he'd given up trying to remember anything. Every time he got further than the pursuit he hit a wall of white that sealed off his memories from him. So instead he'd been putting his attentions into healing the last of his wounds, and learning a little about the world around him. From the sounds of things the little girl who rescued him was being given a hard time in school. Humans could be so cruel.

It wasn't until first break that things started to escalate. Evet made a comment louder than normal, and half of the class laughed at it. Poor Switch, red in the face from the humiliation, struck back with a jibe of her own, but it wasn't nearly as effective and ended up backfiring. Evet, by far the tallest and most pretty girl in class, was making a fool out of her, twisting her words into dumb comments and making inappropriate suggestions about her family.

"I'll bet that's the reason you don't have a real Navi." She trilled. "You're too poor to get one."

The girls around her tittered and pointed at Switch, whose eyes began to run with tears. Her parents worked hard to put food on the table, and they weren't the poorest of people. But this school was reserved for some of the most upper-class students in the country, and in comparison she just couldn't make the cut.

"Switch?" a small voice spoke up from her bag. "Switch?"

She wiped her eyes and pulled open her bag, looking in on her PET. Enker's face stared up at her, concerned.

"Challenge her to a Netbattle." He urged.

"But . . . you don't belong to me. I couldn't ask you to . . ."

"Do it, I don't mind." Enker declaired simply, "She needs to be taught a lesson."

Nodding her head once, Switch pulled her PET from the bag and held it close to her chest. Evet almost choked with laughter, unable to see the screen – she thought that Switch was going to challenge her with an off-the-shelf Navi. Fill of self confidence, the brat plugged into the desk monitor and stood back, waiting for her rival to do the same. Other kids began to crowd around. Net battling wasn't actually allowed in school but everyone did it. But to see Switch plug-in was a rare occurance. Rarer still that she was standing up for herself.

-

Enker sparked into existence in the combat arena and glanced around for his opponent, a tall female with slick black hair and blue armour stood in front of him. She seemed a little taken aback by his appearance, apparently expecting an easy win. His eyes narrowed, he'd show her.

In a blur of movement he dashed across the intervening space and swept daftly to one side to avoid a slice from the sword-chip that had been applied to Evet's Navi. Then, with three deft moves he took away her legs and knocked her backwards and out of the ring. The whole contest had only taken ten seconds.

Smiling, Enker looked up out of the screen at Switch, giving her the thumbs up. He'd done it.

-

The kids around the table cheered, Switch had won and without any apparent effort. Evet's mouth hang open and she simply gasped, unable to do anything but stare. Switch beamed, and plugged out of the monitor. "Thanks." She murmered." Someone patted her shoulder and invited her out after school to play, she nodded and agreed. Suddenly she was so popular with the class.

"No problem," Enker replied. "I only need a favor?"

"Anything." She promised.

"Can I stay here with you for a while longer? Just until I get my memories back?"

A wide smile spread across her face then, and she hugged the PET to her chest. "Of course you can, stay as long as you like. After all, you're my best friend."

Things had changed, and between the two of them the future looked bright. Despite everything, Enker's past and the mystery surrounding it – she felt sure that things would work out for the best.


	2. Chapter: 2

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: A lot of people seem to want more of this alternate setting, so I've dived back into the Classic Megaman archive to produce a few new characters. As always comments are appreciated, and incentive to write more is always appreciated. I'm pleasantly surprised by how many people who have read this story have also come across Enker's Tale. Shows that I must be doing something right eh?_

**CHAPTER 2: Mystery Data.**

Enker sat, legs crossed and meditated quietly by himself – Switch had plugged him into the net a few times, but he wasn't ready to go out and explore just yet – he wanted to make sure that his body was fully healed before he left the safety of Switch's PET. And so he cleared his mind and just sat thinking and trying to remember.

He could clearly visualize running, and the feeling of immense panic. He was going to die if he didn't do something drastic, but he had no idea what that could be. And so, in an act of desperation he had patched into the nearest PET and collapsed from exhaustion and his wounds. All of this he could remember perfectly, but . . . everything else was a blurred mess. There was nothing else that he could think of.

A soft beeping sound disturbed him from his meditation.

Sighing, he stood and checked the mail. It looked like another of Switch's newly acquired friends was sending her a message. She'd become quite popular since the incident at school a few days ago, and despite her best efforts the annoying Evet was still unable top topple her from that particular pedestal.

"Switch, there's another message for you." He called and was rewarded by the sound of the little girl's voice calling back.

"Just a minute Enker, I'm in the shower."

Sitting himself back down again, he considered going to the local Square in the hopes of gathering some information on himself. Surely one of the Chatrooms would have a vague message about a missing Navi. He'd talk to Switch about what she thought when she got back out of the shower. The two of them would be off to the local arcade soon in order to Netbattle some of her friends. And he wasn't in any hurry to leave, in fact he'd become quite attached to his new NetOp, as she had to him.

-

"You lost him?" The tall man looked up from behind his desk, eyes filled with rage. Behind him the city panned out of the window, the elevation of this office giving a truly spectacular view.

"I'm sorry, Sir." One of the two men assembled in front of his desk pulled nervously at his tie and tried to make excuses. They both knew that their careers were hanging in the balance. "He was too quick for us, he got in and out of the system before we could protect the data, and then managed to evade our trackers."

The tall man stood, his large bulk fitted smoothly into a pressed blue suit. On his desk sat a case-report of some urgency, and if things were not sorted out quickly and privately then his very life would be at risk. The senior partners did not accept failure of this magnitude.

"We have to retrieve the stolen data before anyone outside of this office becomes aware. The two of you are sworn to secrecy on this, am I clear?"

They nodded dumbly, relieved that they were going to be leaving this man's presence as quickly as possible. He unnerved them – it was something about his eyes. Cold and dead.

"We're sure that he was injured in the escape." One of them added hopefully. "It should be easy for us to find him if he's so badly wounded. What do you plan to do?"

The tall man looked out of the window and out across the landscape. Not once turning back to the two men who had failed him so terribly. By the end of the day he would have them 'disappear'. Nothing of them would ever be seen again, and their presence here would be totally erased. Such was the price you paid for failure.

"I will bring in the professionals." He stated simply.

Bounty Hunters. They would be able to follow the trail and bring home the stolen data. And they'd soon put an end to the Navi who had the nerve to sneak into his computer systems.

"Plugin, Enker! Transmission!"

Appearing on the screen in front of her, Switch admired the speed with which her friend acquainted himself with the layout of their battleground. The Arcade was infamous for randomly generating an area each time there was a Netbattle. So it was essential to view the territory before you began the fight. Reaching into her pocket she produced six Battlechips and judged which best to use against her opponent.

Quint was the Navi her friend Karen had fielded against Enker. A smaller than average close combat type with lightening fast attacks. In her hand she had Sword, Area Steal, Shotgun, Barrier and Mimibomb. None of them particularly rare to some across, but all useful in several ways. She also had the strange Mirror Buster chip that had arrived with Enker that fateful night two days ago, but so far she had been too hesitant to use it.

"Sword, slot in!" she announced and slipped the chip into her PET. Instantly Enker's right hand burst into a shatter of light and reformed into a meter long blade. Without any hesitation he charged and attacked Quint, who managed to dodge the first attack, but was caught in the shoulder by a faint followed by a downwards slash.

The battle would have ended there if it weren't for an unexpected turn of events. Karen drew a chip from her stash and slotted it into her PET, calling forth the strangest attack that Switch had ever seen. Much to the surprise of both herself and Enker, a pogo-stick-like drill appeared beneath the little fellow, which he rode around upon. Diving to the left, Enker narrowly avoided being crushed.

Updating his weapon to the Shotgun, Switch explained that distanced attacks would be a better plan given the range of the pogo-stick. Without hesitation Enker followed her lead, and succeeded in knocking the little guy off of the contraption. As soon as he hit the floor, she sent Area steal to close the distance between them and the fight was as good as over.

Looking up from her PET, Karen smiled and indicated that Quint had been plugged out successfully. He hadn't taken a lot of damage, but she'd pulled him from the match as soon as she realized that there was no way she could win.

"Rematch some time?" She suggested.

"Sure." Switch beamed and made to pull Enker out of the Arcade's arena. However she stopped, staring down at the screen.

Two new Navis had appeared in the arena – but there was nobody else around to control them. Their NetOps must have sent them there through the internet connections that this place had installed. They closed in around Enker from both sides as she watched, unable to do anything.

"Well if it isn't Enker." The taller of the two smiled to himself, a tall Navi with golden armor similar to that of Enker's own, but toned down somehow to a deeper shade. On his forehead sat a circular symbol, broken at the tip, like a pair of strange horns.

"Just the guy we've been looking for." The other grinned. This one was clad in blue armor and had a sort of crown atop long flowing brown hair.

The two of them closed in either side of the hapless Enker, covering him from both angles. Should he try to move or escape they would kill him without hesitation.

Enker, unable to comprehend what they could possibly want with him, blinked. "You know who I am?" he asked, hopefully.

The two exchanged a blank look and refocused their attention on him, the taller one spoke up first. "We've never met before, but you're a popular guy. You managed to get someone out there angry enough to call the two of us in. We're very exclusive, you must be worth a lot of money."

"Who are you?"

"The name's Terra." The second chimed in, "and this is Ballade."

Without another word they dived in at him, and Enker was given no choice but to duck and roll, letting them sail harmlessly past his body. They righted themselves more quickly than he would have hoped though, and avoided a collision. Terra pulled a Minibomb and launched it at where he had landed, sending him flying.

"Give us the data you stole." Ballade yelled, "and we may let you live. Otherwise it's deletion for you."

Enker gasped, they wanted to kill him. He didn't know why it was or what they were talking about, but there was no mistaking their intention. "Switch!" he yelled desperately. "Get me out of here!"

Waiting for the familiar feeling of being pulled away to her PET, Enker was shocked when it never arrived.

"They're blocking me out!" Switch's voice came from everywhere at once. "I can't do it! Hold on I'm sending you a chip so you can fight them."

His arm shimmered back into a sword just in time to slice another Minibomb in half and save himself. A second either way and he would have lost too many Hit Points to survive. After all, he had just come out of another battle before this one had started and hadn't been healed yet.

Looking up above him he realized that escape was impossible, a shield of some kind had been erected directly overhead and was blocking anyone coming in or out of the arena. He had to find some way to destroy it is he was ever to see Switch again – or to survive.

Slicing a path between himself and Terra, he suddenly realised that he had lost sight of Ballade. Spinning on the spot and changing direction rapidly stopped him becoming skewered on the second Navi's own sword. They had set a trap for him, the two of them working together effortlessly. He hoped that he could keep ahead of their game long enough to work out a way to save himself.

A second attack run by the duo sent him sprawling onto his side, sliding out across the arena floor. Yelling out in pain he saw a large cut in his side, Terra had blinded him with a bomb long enough for Ballade to cut him. And they had done it so fast that he hadn't even been able to see it coming and block.

Above him he heard someone yelling, but he couldn't make out the words. Too preoccupied with the battle he threw everything behind a direct assault upon Terra, hoping to break their pattern of attack by stopping the bombs that blinded him. Three strides in however he was countered by Ballade and forced back against a wall.

"We'd heard you were dangerous Enker. Too bad you're not fighting to your full potential." The golden Navi span and hit his blade so hard that the two shattered upon each other and sent the pair flying in different directions. Skidding to a halt in one corner, Enker saw his opening.

It was going to take ballade a second for his NetOp to upload another sword. In that period he was defenceless.

Standing, and streaking across the field towards the downed Navi, Enker drew back one fist as if to strike him, then span on the spot – punching across the face of Terra as he came forwards to protect his partner. Taken by surprise the other Navi toppled backwards and down.

At that moment the ceiling above their heads shattered and Quint, uttering a cowboy style whoop of delight, came smashing through on his drill. Landing beside Enker the little guy noticed the wound immediately that marred his side, and yelled out. "Now Switch! Get us out of here."

Fizzing into data, the two Navis vanished and escaped.

The man turned from his window and swore loudly. Smashing one large fist into his desk. Outside Tokyo Tower shone in the moonlight, lit up by a hundred perfectly place lights.

"You failed me." He didn't look away, on the speakerphone his two contacts made no move to apologize.

"We didn't count on the little one's intervention, but don't worry we'll get him. Its what you paid us for isn't it?"

"Indeed it is. But you won't receive that money unless you also retrieve the data he stole."

There was a pause, as if they were debating something on the other side of the phone, and then a click as they hung up. He didn't need to remind them again – they were the best. They would hunt down this Enker to the end of the digital world and delete him, and then he would find the one who owned him and do the same in this one. Nobody stood against him.


	3. Chapter: 3

**CHAPTER 3 - Day in the City.**

Switch stepped off of the train and glanced around, on a big screen in the town centre one of the television channels was broadcasting the highlights from last years National Netbattle Championships. She filtered through the crowd, eyes on the side of the building with the screen all of the time. A small crowd had gathered close by to watch, and she could hear them chatting happily.

Pushing to the back of the crowd she was in time to see the battle reach its dramatic conclusion as the two Navis fought it out. One red with a scarf-like flair of white hair streaking from the back of his helmet, the other blue and slightly smaller. It looked like they were duelling with swords made entirely from light.

"Excuse me," she spoke up, "who are the Navis on the screen?"

A twenty-something boy amongst the crowd looked down and answered her question with a slightly surprised expression. "That's Megaman fighting Protoman in the final," he paused and then added "You mean you don't know?"

Switch flushed a little "I'm not from around here." She admitted.

Watching the match, she suddenly remembered why she had made the long trek all of the way into the city, and felt for the reassuring weight of her PET hanging from her belt. Above her the match ended and the crowd dispersed as highlights from another arena bout were aired, and quietly she edged away from the crowd and crossed the courtyard to where a tall building was waiting with invitingly open doors.

Unnoticed, a tall figure in a white lab coat watched her go.

----

Inside the store she suddenly found herself in toy heaven. It sold everything from plushie figures to computer hardware, as well as stocking a decent selection of music and video data files that weren't out on Net release yet. Wondering idly through these candy-coloured sections she wished that she had more money with her, but her allowance only amounted enough to cover the one item she had been saving for.

Up on the third floor she fount the PET section and was greeted with a large stack of attachments for the system as well as new anti-virus data and a wide selection of battle chips. It was these that she was interested in, and with care she picked her way around the large table rigged with projectors for combat. Nobody was battling at the moment, but a healthy amount of children were eyeing the table.

"See what you want?" Enker's voice trailed up from her hip, where the PET was hung. But she had to admit that she didn't. She'd come all this way in the hopes of picking up a collector's catalogue, something that would contain a detailed description of every battle chip currently on the market. In that way she would be able to look up the strange Mirror Buster chip that had arrived the same night that Enker had. Almost six months ago now, they were still no closer to discovering his origins.

Eyeing the shelf, she finally found it and scooped it into her bag. The price tag wasn't cheap, but Enker was her friend and she had promised to help him. He'd been her loyal companion for a long time now and she wanted to prove herself worthy of such loyalty. When he had arrived she'd been an unpopular kid at school, but since then she'd learnt self confidence and found friends.

Sitting in a corner with her latest purchase, she pulled the chip out of her pocket and began to rummage through the pages in the hope of spotting the same title written across the head of a page. Each leaf was split into sections covering name, rarity, value, effect and best combo uses.

"Ugh!" she squeaked in frustration and started toying with the chip, turning it over between her thumb and fingers. It wasn't listed at all.

"What's that you've got there?" a cheerful male voice chimed in behind her and before she could do anything a man in his late twenties with a white lab coat had swiped it out of her hand and was holding it up for inspection. One eye narrowed and he made an eccentric humming sound.

"Hey!" Switch cried and tried to take it back, but he was twice her height and one well planted hand on her head stopped her getting anywhere near him, her arms waving about ineffectually in front of her and just out of reach.

"This is strange, I've never seen something like this before . . ." he announced, and tossed it to his other hand idly, letting her go then spinning her around with the free arm around her shoulders. "You know I've seen almost everything there is to see, and this is probably the work of a master. See the inlay work? Very nice!"

He was walking her out of the shop now, across the street and down the road. Before she knew it he had brought her to a smaller store where he slipped behind the counter and plucked out an order form. The owner protested for a second, then stopped abruptly when she saw who it was and simply smiled at him. She seemed quite smitten and was obviously used to seeing such strange behaviour from her man.

Banging the form onto the desk he traced a finger across it, still humming. Switch, feeling a little out of place, looked to the owner for help.

"It's alright hun," she assured her in a motherly tone, "He's a little weird but a genius. They employ him at the university, but he made his money developing battle chips when he was younger. My guess is that you have something that caught his eye right?" she smirked when Switch nodded. "How about a cup of coco? He might be a while."

The young man waved her away with one hand, obviously responding to some private joke between them and then snapped the book shut. "Nope. Not even in here." He tossed Switch back her chip which she caught with both hands and tucked away quickly before he could rethink the move.

Sighing, he looked at her confused face and realisation dawned on him. "Oh, I'm sorry." He flustered and smoothed down his jacket "My name is James Settler," he held out one hand and she shook it bewildered, giving him her name on automatic.

"That chip you have is quite remarkable, but if you'll excuse the expression, it shouldn't even exist. There's no boost to power, speed or defence when it's used and it doesn't seem to have any immediate effect. Why would anyone develop something so professionally in order to do absolutely nothing?"

Switch shrugged. She listened to him ramble on about the design and structure, which didn't mean anything to her at all. Eventually she decided that he was a nice guy, just slightly obsessed. He was relatively young and good looking, with deep blue eyes and short brown hair, and his heart was in the right place. Eventually she introduced him to Enker, who was polite but untalkative. The Navi seemed quite content to listen to the man ramble. Maybe he thought that he may be able to work out where he came from?

"I develop chips for a hobby, and published a study through the university a short while ago. But you say Enker arrived at the same time?"

She nodded.

"Hmmmm . . ." he scratched his chin thoughtfully with one hand and glanced over at the shop girl, whose name was Ruth. Turned out they were childhood friends and her store made a lot of money selling his designs. It also imported rare chips from abroad, which explained why he had gone there to check names.

The Mirror Buster didn't seem to do anything. She'd used it herself on one occasion in a training simulation, and nothing had happened at all. Enker had glowed blue for a fraction of a second then returned to normal. She figured it was a dud or that the data had been corrupted somehow.

----

"Whoever made this program was advanced." James summarised as the day began to draw to a close. Switch had spent the better part of the day learning about chips and their development from the student and his girlfriend. As the time fast approached for the last train to leave, she made her excuses and left. On her way out of the door Ruth had pushed a scrap of paper into her hands wrapped around something solid. She winked and assured her that he'd keep researching and get back to her about the chip, and that she should feel free to drop by any time.

On the train Switch unwrapped the note and found that it contained a chip. Holding it up to the light she gasped as she read the name "Paladin Sword."

"That's a good one." Enker interjected from her lap. "You should thank her."

"This may come in handy." She read aloud from the paper, "Be careful, it sounds like people have already tried to kill Enker for that chip twice and they may try again. Whatever you do take care of him, his memory may be the key to unravelling this secret. Feel free to call me anytime."

----

James looked over at Ruth across the counter and the pair shared a mutual moment of worried silence. "Well we know where Enker went." She spoke at last, "Who'd have thought that he'd end up with that innocent little girl."

Sighing, James let his gaze wonder to the window, it was starting to rain. "Enker is the greatest Navi that I have ever created. He'll protect her."

"I hope so, she's such a sweet girl, and this is all our fault."


	4. Chapter: 4

_AUTHER'S NOTE: Ok, so it's been a long time since I was writing stories for in my downtime at university, and I apologise that I've not updated anything in almost 5 years! The modern workplace is one hell of a rush. Still, every now and again I'd get an email asking me to get on and write some more of this particular story. So, here we go._

**CHAPTER 4: Blood Ties**

The highest tower in the city used to be Tokyo Tower. These days it was eclipsed by the much larger form of the Templar Building, the headquarters of the hugely influential Templar Corporation. With ties to the military, and fingers in water and power supply, they were a force to be reckoned with. The CEO, Hester Templar, wasn't a very public facing figure, preferring to keep his life private, but it was whispered that he had a talent for spotting and employing the finest minds of a generation. His influence spread throughout the known world, and the profits? Well they were just the cream.

Right now he was sitting at his desk, blue suit and tie neatly pressed, bent over a telephone. "What do you mean you can't locate him?" He snarled, fist clenching. "I want the prototype found and I want it either brought back here or destroyed. If we can't have it nobody should."

Slamming the phone down, he sat back in his chair and seethed. A moment later the door to his office opened and his daughter entered. Karen had come to visit from her home with her mother outside of town, and so far he'd had to cry off of their weekend twice already for work purposes. Clutching her PET in her hand, she looked around.

"This sure is a big office." She commented, and her Navi, Quint, chirped in agreement.

Hester ran a hand across her hair and kissed the girls forehead. "Let's get out of here." He announced, "I think we can still catch the show you wanted."

Across the net however, the consequences of his phone call were already burning their way outward. Straight to the ears of two bounty hunters that had a job to do. Find the runaway prototype, and if they couldn't bring it back as salvageable data, destroy it.

Switch and Enker were sat in her bedroom playing a game of retro style Pong on her PET when her mother stuck her head around the door to check in on her. The school was going on a trip to a museum of natural history today, and she wanted to remind her that PETS were strictly not allowed in the building, so not to take Enker along. There was so much fragile tech in the building that a single Navi could cause mayhem if unchecked.

"Sure mum." Switch agreed, and apologised to Enker. "Are you gonna be alright here by yourself?" She asked, worry in her voice.

Enker shrugged it off. "I'll be fine. I'm meeting Quint in the Square online in an hour while his user takes in a show, so we've both got a day out ahead of us."

"Cool." Switch grabbed her bag and waved as she ran out of the door. Enker waved back with a smile and then vanished from the PET screen with a blip.

Reappearing on the net, Enker took a long deep breath and let it out slowly. In effect this was his first 'day off'. Switch was becoming more popular in school and that meant more emails to field, phone calls to manage and net-battles in which to engage. He loved doing it, and wouldn't want to stop for the world, but it could be tiring on a busy day.

Taking off toward the location he'd arranged to meet Quint, Enker only got so far before two large figures blocked his path. The taller of the two had blue armour and long hair, and the other wore impressive armour and bore a crescent logo on his helmet. Ballade and Terra.

"What do you want?" Enker's eyes narrowed, he stood carefully, preparing himself for an attack.

Ballade looked like he wanted to punch Enker's lights out, but Terra put on a sleazy smile and held his arms out in a wide gesture. "Whoa there little guy. We're just here to talk."

"I'll bet." Enker still remembered their last encounter, he'd almost been double-teamed by the pair of them. If Quint hadn't opened up an escape route he'd have been deleted for sure.

"Truth is, we thought that maybe you'd WANT to come with us." Terra went on. "After all, it's your best chance to go home. All you need to do is tell us what happened to the data you stole, and we'll call it a day. Some people want to pay our NetOps a lot of money to find that data."

Enker looked puzzled. "Data?"

"Don't play dumb with us Enker. We know you have it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He was telling the truth, he couldn't remember anything before arriving at Switch's terminal.

"You busted into a top-level government security grid, downloaded then deleted a secret military project and then vanished from the grid man. If I were you I'd be working that rep, but instead you're going to try to play dumb?"

"What a jerk." Ballade chipped in.

"I did what?" Enker gasped.

Terra shook his head sadly, "if you won't do this willingly then I guess we'll have to go for the second option instead. Alive or dead the bulletin said. Guess its dead."

Ballade jumped at Enker, who ducked the attack, spinning on the spot and throwing the bulky Navi at his partner. While the two were picking themselves up from the fall, he sprinted the other way. His mind a blur. All that he knew was that he had to get away, find other Navis and get help, but he was ages away from anywhere and he couldn't retreat back to Switch's server without her there to seal the connection. So instead he ran, dodging fire from the bounty hunters as they slowly chased him down.

Spinning to a halt, he dived into a secondary operating system and hid inside the data stream there, letting it carry him away from the pair. If he was lucky it would buy him some time, but it wouldn't mask his trail forever. He had to think of a solution. He couldn't stand up to them, not without a NetOp to feed him chips, he was totally unarmed.

Something tapped and rolled down by his foot. Glancing down he realised it was a MiniBomb just too late, and was only able to throw himself to one side as the explosion shattered the stream and he spilled out into the net again. Panting for breath, he flipped onto his side in time to see Ballade bearing down on him. Three punches to the chest and face sent Enker spiralling, his head fuzzy and the pain sharp. A fourth and then he was slammed against the wall, held by his neck.

Terra was doing something with a small os-window that had popped up beside him, running some kind of a data scan. As Enker watched the bar ticked up towards completion. He was pretty sure that when they had everything they needed they wouldn't need him anymore.

Kicking out with his feet, he managed to break the choke hold and toppled to the ground, Ballade generated another grenade but Enker saw it coming and grabbed the bigger Navi's fist, keeping it pinned there. The pin automatically pulled when it was generated, it bleeted a warning and then flashed red before exploding. The damage to Enker's face and chest was minimal, but Ballade was down one whole arm. Using the moment he swung Ballade down onto the floor hard and used the momentum to punch Terra across the face. The scan stopped abruptly, hovering around the eighty percent mark.

Using the time he had, Enker opened up the first friendly window in his friends list and vanished into it, praying that wherever he appeared they wouldn't be able to follow. Seconds later he collapsed onto terminal screen in Ruth's shop. She blinked, then it a button and the net port shut, he was safe. After a second he realised that he was standing in a full-sized screen making up the whole wall of her shop, displayed at Human scale.

"What happened?" She gasped.

"Sorry to barge in, I was in a bit of a rush." Enker admitted, and promptly passed out.

"He got away again." The CEO of Templar Corp didn't sound pleased on the mobile to his contact in the shady side of the business world. "Explain to me why I shouldn't . . . sever your pension right now." The threat held more than was spoken aloud, he was standing outside the bar at a show-house, his daughter buying a drink while the interval was still on.

"We managed to retrieve some data boss ." The voice replied, full of fear. "Almost eighty five percent. Enough for a partial reconstruction."

A smile flittered across. Hester's face, "Do it."


	5. Chapter: 5

_AUTHER'S NOTE: Twice in one week after a five year gap seems like a good penance. I'm writing these in my spare time at work between jobs, so expect a couple of typos (I am also English, so please nobody complain about how 'colour' and other such words are spelt). As usual, comments are welcome. I'm still trying to work out how to get a decent page break between scenes that this system won't automatically remove, so I appologise for any trouble in reading previous chapters guys and girls._

**CHAPTER 5: Family**

The door to Ruth's shop slammed open with the jangle of bells, usually used to give her a heads-up when a customer arrived. Not today though, she'd shut up shop when Enker had mysteriously appeared in her window display, badly beaten and being chased by bounty hunters. Doing all that she could, she'd transferred him to an interior display unit, one that projected his likeness as a man-sized hologram inside a ring of light in the middle of the shop, then ran regeneration algorithms. The newcomer was Switch, who she'd called as soon as Enker was in a state to explain what had happened. Ditching whatever she'd been doing, she'd come straight away. Now it was almost night and the light outside was growing dim.

"What happened?" She asked, and Ruth took the time to explain the events of the day in detail to the young girl, who looked seriously worried.

"He's fine. I'm just glad that I gave you my number or he'd never have been able to come here." She assured her. Together the pair of them went back to check on Enker, who was standing projected in front of a man in a long white coat.

James was a scientist and one-time kid wonder of the Net Battle circuit, creating all manner of original and unique designs. Today he lived outside of the public eye, but still dabbled as a hobby. It looked like he was doing what he could to help mend Enker's broken chest-plate, which still bore cracks and scorch-marks from his altercation. With tap of a stylus on his data-pad, he worked with a speed that Switch hadn't seen in many adults, let alone at school.

"Sheena? Bring me up the schematics." He murmured, as if talking to himself. A second later however a series of text filled boxes floated around Enker, who looked at them in amusement. "Thank you." He added, and went back to work.

"You're welcome." A female voice chirped from the pad, and it took Switch a second to realise that he must have been talking to his own Navi. The image of a shapely woman with long white hair flittered across a screen in the corner for a second and then was gone, busy with her own tasks.

"Ah, Switch!" James swung around and gave her a broad grin, "there you are. Enker's been asking after you. I'll give you two a moment to talk but . . . while I was fixing him I added a little data to his program, he insisted. Here." He pressed the pad into her hands and wondered out, leaving the two of them alone. Enker blinked and smiled weakly at her, evidently worried that she was angry with him. He had no reason to be, he was the victim here.

"Are you alright?" She asked, and he nodded. "This is happening a lot, huh? Maybe it's getting too dangerous for you to just wonder about on the net . . ."

He shook his head, "I need to find out what's going on and where I come from. The two who attacked me seemed to believe that I had stolen something important from a secure server but . . . I still can't remember any of it. I need to know." His eyes shone with determination.

Switch felt a little cold pull at the base of her stomach. "And when you do? What happens then? Will you leave?"

Enker shook his head. "Look at the pad." She did as instructed and was surprised to see a readout of Enker's legal schematics, he'd been officially re-branded as belonging exclusively to Switch, now nobody but her could utilise him. She smiled and tapped the pad, closing the data, and with a whispered thank you went to check on Ruth and James.

* * *

Double doors swished open with a mechanical click and then resealed themselves behind the head of the Templar Corporation, locking as they did so. The room was dark, lit by flickering screens and the light of a full-size holographic projector. Scientists and techs rushed about filtering data and streaming what they found into the central bank, which contained a figure. Walking closer, Hester stopped within a few inches of the projection and waited.

Initially just an outline, a simple grid structure made of light, the Navi started to take shape. Details sharpened, features became clearer. Black and white armour knitted itself around the figure and a helmetless face began to form. One eye opened to reveal red pupils.

"The data was only eighty-three percent complete, so we haven't been able to create a complete reconstruction of the Navi in question, so we've filled in the blanks with the latest sortware from our military range."

"Excellent." Hester looked down at the Navi as it became aware of its surroundings for the first time. "Do you know me?" he asked.

The Navi nodded.

"Now, here's what you were created to do . . ."

* * *

James sipped a cup of coffee and explained what he'd found whilst going over Enker's stats and data, outlining his finding for Switch in language that she could understand.

"He's built for combat, but not an out-an-out battle. Basically Enker's been given to potential for great martial prowess, but when his memory was wiped he lost those skills. Some may come to him on a purely intuitive level, but he'll only remember how to do things through combat."

"So the more I use him in Net Battles the stronger he will become?"

"Exactly. It's a bit like an RPG, where experience equals levels, but in this case you have to stretch him over different opponents to reveal his potential. It's already there, but it needs to be accessed. His stats are interesting for a combat type, high speed and intelligence with a low damage and attack ratio. Keep that in mind. He won't be punching anybody out, but he'll be able to run rings around most Navis."

Ruth handed Switch her PET, Enker now re-installed on the little machine. He waved up at her and together thanked the pair of adults that had given up so much time that day to help them. Leaving the shop and heading for the train, they didn't notice a billboard at the station briefly flicker, and for a fraction of a second a pair of red eyes stared out at them . . .

* * *

"You should have told them everything." Ruth ditched the cups into the sink and ran water over them, she didn't look at James, his smile would disarm her and she wanted to be angry right now. There was a real chance that Enker and Switch would be in danger.

"It's not the right time, and they should be enjoying themselves while they can." James replied, leaning against the window and staring out into the night. "When I made Enker I gave him everything he'd need to survive, but I didn't program him to have such a big heart. He's evolving on his own and forming an attachment to Switch. I don't want to get in the way of that."

Ruth spun around, "and what happens when the Templar Corporation catches up with them? This is the second attack he's had to withstand."

"Switch cares for him, and we're supporting her. As long as she's with him he'll find a way to power through to the end. And remember, she still has the chip."

Ruth's shoulders sagged. "I'm just scared for them."

"I know." James nodded, "and trust me that when the time comes we'll support them with everything we've got. The truth included. For now just let them have what fun they can. The days ahead will be dark enough."


End file.
